Thursday, September 24, 2009

Pal commenting over at the Journal on a story there recommended cutting Horcoff, Hemsky, Moreau, Pisani and Penner.

There's a good idea.

Last night has to put a stop to all of those Lowe Lynchers out there - that trade for Curtis Glencross looks awesome everytime he steps onto the ice.

Anyways I'm going to try and liveblog the game tonight. Its on TSN so I'll be watching. A lot of the bubble boys are participating - Schremp, Reddox, Brule, Pouliot, MacIntyre and Nilsson.

Horcoff and Hemsky are not playing. Souray isn't either. The bums.

Actually before I go any further let me just make it clear that other than for those players mentioned above the preseason means absolutely nothing for the vets other than coming out of it healthy, imo. This idea that we should worry about Hemsky or Horcoff because they are not up to snuff now is pretty ridiculous. If you have to buy tickets to these preseason games because you are a season's ticket holder then I feel badly because its positively criminal what they charge. If you buy tickets for the game on your own well caveat emptor. Its exhibition. What do you expect?

If Hemsky is sucking bag in October then we can worry. For now, whatever.

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This is going to be exciting though. Because not only am I live blogging the game but I am live blogging my day. Now you get to see how the other half lives.

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11:15pm And another lost draw and thats the game. So ... oh right, a guy who can win faceoffs, who would have thought that might be an Achilles heel for these guys? Oh hindsight is 20/20 blah blah blah.

Well a good second and third periods and most of the guys who had to show well did so. Schremp is a goner and probably Reddox too so its Brule, Stone, Pouliot and Nilsson for the last three spots. I think so anyway. We've been saying it all summer, well for two years now, they need someone who can win draws. I think they might move someone out, maybe a couple of guys, and bring someone in. Cost them the game tonight.

And Cogliano on the wing? Yes please.

That's all for now, have a great night.

11:09 pm Oilers come with speed and aggression and one hopes that this is how they play this season, hard to handle Cogliano on the fly, he's looked terrific.

11:04 pm A lost faceoff and they don't get it back and its a tie game.

10:56pm Hmm, MacIntyre should have broken Fedoruk's face for that hit on Gilbert I think.

Saw The Reader the other night. Love Kate Winslet. And she was naked. Again! Hmmm.

Cogliano looks pretty comfortable on the wing.

Gagner looks faster. Stortini too, of all people.

10:35pm Ladies and gentleman noted hipster, barfly and pervert, Mike Winters. Stone makes his case for a roster spot and for a special place in my heart with consecutive hits on punk Steve Downie. And really this line with Moreau, Brule and Stone looks like a fine fourth line, I have to say. Brule with a nice turn up ice and feed to Gilbert.

I think Gilbert pots ten or more this year. Plus I love him.

Him, beer and salami. And sex. I love sex a lot.

10:25pm Nice dig at Maguire on the Nilsson draft pick. One last thing before the third period. Its overdone sometimes but it would be nice if some other Oiler players emulated Reddox. Kid has heart and he's a smart player. I don't think he makes the club but he'll be back if he makes it through waivers.

10:10pm And we have a tie, well deserved. Got a break on the Nilsson goal but I think he'll take it. Nilsson has skill. Dear me can they cut him? If and its an if he has figured it out, well ....

And Cogliano with a nice period. Put him on the wing, please.

Too many damn forwards. I'm impressed with Eberle but I think its clear that he's going back to junior. Three spots for Nilsson, Stone, Brule, Pouliot, Schremp and Reddox then. I can't see them keeping MacIntyre and Brennan. Quinn wants guys who can play. Still, six guys, Jesus.

10:00pm A decent PP, a lot of puck movement, players are actually moving their feet. This is one thing that is going to show a lot of improvement this season I think. Schremp wins a couple of draws. Eberle with a beautiful pass. Far more aggressive.

9:47pm A better period so far. They're skating. Schremp has a nice shift. Hell freezes over. The big fellow fucks a cat and then enjoys a cigarette. I stop drinking. Brule actually knocks someone down. Gagner wins a draw. Too much salami I think. I have the shakes.

None of the bubble boys have done much. Schremp is a bit of a turnover machine. Chorney doesn't stand out and that's a good thing at his age. He's not hurting his cause I think.

9:24pm Barnaby and McGuire ridicule the team that Tambellini and Lowe have put together. Ha. Too small. True. Too soft. True. Too many underachievers. True. Khabibulin's health a big issue. OK so Matthew Barnaby knows this but Oilers management is ok with the gamble. Not a playoff team according to Barnaby. I agree.

Visnovsky is going to be fine though. Major surgery and hasn't played in months and months. His timing is off but he looks fine. He can skate for miles. Gilbert looks fine too. Grebs and Smid had it tough, especially the former. Some serious giveways. Up front Penner looks good, Stortini and Reddox have energy. Eberle doesn't look out of place but he's going back to junior. Its great that he fits in but they can't keep him. Too early. Stone looks ok, nothing special but not terrible.

Nilsson looks like the best of the rest. And the rest, a whole lot of meh. Schemp and Brule have done nothing to convince me that they belong on the club but if Pisani and Pouliot are going to be out for a while then they can postpone the decisions I guess. Good for Schremp because there are still people out there who figure he's going to be a superstar. To that I say, um, give your fucking head a shake.

9:04pm Nobody on this club can win a draw. Not even close.

Penner really does look good. The PP, not so much.

8:50pm Quinn pregame talks up Penner and Jacques who he thinks has more than fourth line potential. There's our 11th man up front then. Also twists the knife a little. The organization has been poor. Hah. If they miss the playoffs he's the GM folks. Awesome.

Down a goal already. Smid coughs it up and then gets outmuscled. The LW (? who was it?) is at sea and then the rebound goes to Malone who is uncovered. Wow what a gongshow.

Nilsson has unbelieveable skill. I can't see them cutting him.

8:32 pm School visit went well. Apparently the diva and the boy are brilliant. Not surprised. Also very well behaved. Trying to figure out if kids have pics of teachers or perhaps their family members hostage somewhere.

Pierre Maguire, ah how I've missed you. In studio the hyperbole almost immediately begins with him and Barnaby trying to outdo each other. Hedman is fifty times the player and the person that anyone expected.

Jesus. And he and Stamkos are both franchise players.

Joey Mullen as a comp for Eberle. We can only hope.

6:08pm Going to school curriculum night. The diva's teacher told my wife today that the diva is a joy. The half dozen times that my wife berated her at supper I whispered across the table "She's a joy."

3:57 pm Like Lionel Ritchie last night I had a dream, I had an awesome dream. In the dream there were people and a park and games were being played in the dark and there was a masquerade and a video with some blind girl. Hmm.

Actually I can't remember but I'm pretty sure it was a sex dream and in the dream I was getting a ride and I was reaching for my wife (yes when I dream about sex I do dream about my wife) and what heppened is that I actually reached my arm out in real life.

Meanwhile my wife was apparently dreaming about being chased. We might have been having the same dream by the sounds of it. Anyways she is running for her life and all of a sudden I poked her in the belly. Hard.

Well she wakes up with this gasp which of course woke me up. Scared the shit out of her. Had to change the sheets.

And damn it I didn't even get to finish my dream.

Going to punch out now. Heading home.

3:39pmMy baby's all growed up. Man the CBC loves Dellow. I think he lives in Ron MacLean's basement actually. I find it amusing that so many fans will defend Oilers' management and a lot fo the moves they've made. Like the past three years out of the playoffs, after having a club that came within a goal of winning the Cup, isn't proof enough that these guys are incompetents.

If Nilsson gets cut then for Chris Pronger and Ryan Smyth they will have Ladislav Smid as the only player out of the four they traded for who still has any chance at an NHL career with this club. How brutal is that?

3:15pm Feeling fine now. Not going to worry about the fact that the Oilers once again don't have a centre other than Horcoff who can win draws or PK or who can find his way around his own end of the rink. Quinn's not worried. Oh, he is?

I've said it before and I will say it again. If this club does not make the playoffs this season Tambellini is a goner and Quinn takes his place. Your man Pat Quinn is a smart guy and he's an astute politician and he has a lot of cachet. He's already saying on the record that this team is lacking. When Katz is pitching a fit at the end of the year and the famous coach says hey I told you so what do you think happens to the newbie GM?

2:55pm Ok I'm going back for a couple more pints. Nobody's going to say anything. I'm the boss. What the hell are they going to say? Plus I think they're happy to see me go. Had lamb shank, garlic mash and bok choy for supper last night at the bistro plus a couple of Creemores and some red wine. The office smells like ass.

2:43 pm Have to pee again. Plus the buzz is wearing off. Stupid Oilers are going to suck. Again. Need to go back to the pub. Nobody's noticed a damn thing. Except I keep having to go pee. I wonder if I just pee in my garbage can here if anybody will notice?

2:26pm Damn, have to pee. With bladder being the size of a B.B. I should have seen this coming.

2:15 pm Back from McVeighs. My choice of bar is, to paraphrase Hobbes, nasty, brutish and small. Or are those the women I used to end up with after I hit the bars? Anyways love McVeighs. Nearly fifty years old. Pictures of Michael Collins behind the bar. Up The Republic and all that. Good Guinness and Murphy's too. Publican is old Jimmy. Cantankerous. Gave him my debit card to pay for pints. Threw it on the bar, snarling 'what the hell is that?', stomped off.

Feeling damn good now. Two quick pints. Oilers' season looking less gloomy. Apparently I've hit on it. Must drink more. I'm up for it.

1:45 pm Work is fucking mental. I didn't sign up for this. Plus I'm thirsty because of that salami. I wonder if I sneak down to McVeighs for a pint would anybody notice?

1:30 pm Salami sandwiches for lunch. Love salami. Love all of those sausages and sausage type meats. Wonder if that says something about me in a weird subliminal sexual way.

Last night, the bubble boys were better, but none 'separated themselves' enough to be the 'wrong' player to send down. JFJ was the only one that distinguished himself - with his physical play. He was not much better than the others - just more physical.

Brennan is better than SMac at staying with the play - for what that is worth.

"If Nilsson gets cut then for Chris Pronger and Ryan Smyth they will have Ladislav Smid as the only player out of the four they traded for who still has any chance at an NHL career with this club. How brutal is that?"

If you are going to harp on Lowe about "5 assets!" or trading for chips instead of a key 1 for 1 deal then why is that "brutal" that Lowe used those chips at a later time?

I know you don't like Lowe but cutting out a couple chapters from a book isn't going to fool anyone paying attention.

Traktor - I've never, as far as I know, harped on the whole five assets thing.

And I'm not complaining about the picks. Picks are fine if you can get a couple of them to turn out.

But they traded two pretty decent players for an NHL player and three prospects. These are the guys that they wanted. Lupul lasted a year. Nilsson is on the bubble. O'Marra isn't even close to being on the bubble.

That's fair game for criticsm in my books. I know you cut Lowe some slack and that's your opinion in general and I know that you're not a kneejerk guy.

But considering that three of the four guys that he wanted haven't panned out deserves criticism

You know what I like to do? I like to wrap a piece of gouda in prosciutto, like a present. Then I make shishkebabs, sticking one piece of cheesy meaty goodness in the middle of each skewer and putting them on the barbeque. The prosciutto gets kinda crispy, the cheese melts, and you have a delicious little package of heart-stopping goodness. Be careful though. If you don't wrap it together carefully, all the cheese will leak out onto the barbeque.

As for the Oilers, I hope you're right about the veterans getting their shit together by puck-drop of the regular season. Otherwise it's going to be a long year, for me and my liver.

Traktor - well that's the Torres trade all over again probably and I'm fine with that as long as management replaces Moreau with someone who can do what he does.

That's the thing with Lowe - you can argue some of his moves are fine case by case, hell it makes me laugh that now everyone is coming out of the woodwork saying that they wanted Glencross signed. Its not the truth.

The problem is that Lowe doesn't replace the guys. Moving Torres is fine, he was making too much money. Its a salary dump. But you better replace the guy.

Irrelevant to the point anyways. They traded one of the best defencemen in the league and their best forward. They got some four picks. Nice. They got four players. Smid and Nilsson are all that's left and Nilsson is likely gone.

Preseason Brad, just trying to get through it healthy and work my way into shape. Some commenter over at LT's said they should dump me, I'm obviously going at half speed and he's paid good money blah blah blah.

Just catching up on the rest of the comments - for anyone in the Vancouver area - head to Burnaby on Lougheed and turn left onto Gilmore, go up 2 blocks and turn right into the Sausage Factory. They make all their own sausage- their Genoa and Hungarian are fucking outstanding.

Brad when we were on the Island in July we went to a little farm where they do sausage and bacons, they sell all over the Island, mostly wholesale and at markets and festivals, You can just walk in and buy it right there though. We bought some Hungarian sausage and Scottish bacon.

Love the live blog. A bit of a pain to read when one arrives late, however. Wish there was a feature where you could invert it at the end of the day and restore the chronological order.

Barring trade, I wouldn't be overly shocked to see Poo and Pisser start the year on the IR, give Brule and Reddox a bit longer look before putting either on waivers. Both showed well last night, when they absolutely had to. I have to admit I'm pulling for Reddox, he's a real gamer and has some real nice attributes.

Bruce - yeah that would be ideal I guess, except the guys we want to take a look at might be scratched anyways and I think a club with Pisani and Pouliot on it would be a club in better shape than one without

some might not agree of course

Love Reddox. Smart kid and a hard worker. If he were twenty pounds heavier he's be set.